


Drained

by photonromance



Series: Star Trek Gladiator AU [2]
Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: Gladiator AU, M/M, Post Fight Scene, gladiator fights, slave AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 07:16:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21011873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/photonromance/pseuds/photonromance
Summary: Spock is in the Pit





	Drained

**Author's Note:**

> More Migrated Fic! Related works always welcome!

Spock is in the Pit.

Jim has been taken up to serve the Boxes and Leonard is alone in their cell. He organizes his supplies again and checks the tin on the hotplate to be sure there is hot water ready. He hopes there will not be any serious wounds to repair, but Leonard wants to stay prepared.

The cell is locked for his safety and there is a loud series of thumps from the other side.

“Bones!”

It’s Jim.

Leonard is up and pulling the lock pin in a flash. Jim is propping Spock against his shoulder and the Vulcan is soaked. In his own dark green blood and a bright red spray.

“The middle of the floor, near the drain.” Leonard shifts into Doctor Mode. Jim helps him lie down and leaves to get more water. The wounds are easy enough to find.

There is a slash across his chest, no doubt trying to reach the heart. Bless Spock’s Vulcan physique, Leonard thinks dimly. It won’t need stitching but it makes Leonard ache reguardless. Jim kneels beside him with more water and Leonard instructs him to start washing.

It’s not like his old practice. He doesn’t have sedatives or a sterilization box. Leonard can only clean with hot water and apply bandages he made with strips of cloth he boiled earlier in the day.

It’s not enough. It never feels like enough.

There’s a cut on the back of Spock’s thigh that does need stitching and Leonard is so, so careful. Spock’s survival, his heath, his recovery, all determine Leonard’s safety. And he’s so kind. Been so careful with Leonard.

And Jim...

Jim is washing green blood from Spock’s cheek, trying so hard not look like his world his falling apart.

His cheek is bright red, Leonard realizes. “Put some cold on your face.” He says gruffly, not eager to sound too helpful. Jim looks up at him and reaches up to touch the red absently. He nods vaguely and continues washing blood from Spock’s shoulders and arms.

Leonard stitches the deeper wound on Spock’s leg with a needle dipped in boiling water and thread he picked from the rags available. Spock hasn’t moved, his eyes closed and mouth slightly open.

He’s finished with all the wounds he can find on Spock before he has the chance to look at Jim properly again. Jim is washing the filthy water toward the drain now, on his hands and knees, scrubbing at the floor. The red of his cheek has darkened to a purple-maroon that covers his cheekbone and curves up around his eye socket.

Spock is at the mercy of his own healing trance now and Leonard hates to see any being suffer. Dipping a clean rag in the cold water dish, he wrings it out. Jim doesn’t stop scrubbing until Leonard physically takes his cleaning rag and raises the cool pack to his cheek gently.

Jim takes it and looks over at Spock. “I’ll be fine until you’re finished with him.” He adds. Bless the fool. Jim never wants to be a burden.

“It’s out of my hands now.” Leonard explains, leaving Jim to wash his hands in a cup of hot water, “Just help me move him to the pallet.”

Spock is heavy but they manage to move him together, get him comfortable on what little they have and Leonard has a look at Jim’s cheek.

They didn’t hit him hard enough to break bone, bless. If he was broken, Jim was just another slave to the pits. At least in the Boxes, he was offered a measure of safety. He is bruised though. For that, he’ll spend his days in the cell with Leonard and Spock until it heals. Since he is usually fed while in the Boxes, there won’t be any ration for him.

Leonard plans how best to divide his usual ration between them while soothing Jim's cheek with a salve he's developing with weeds he's cultivated in their cell. Spock will need the energy so sharing his is out of the question. Jim winces and Leonard jerks his hand away minutely. “Sorry.” He murmurs on reflex. Jim says nothing, still staring at the drain. “Why did they hit you?” Leonard asks finally.

Jim looks up at him slowly, his entire frame exhausted. “They had him up against four humans, trained gladiators.” Jim murmurs quietly, “They wouldn’t lay up but- You know Spock… He was doing real good. Took one by the knee and then bled him, the other fell hard. Cracked like nothing. He- Spock was pinning down the third, making sure he died easy, and the other one cut open his leg.” Leonard passes him a cup of cool water and Jim drinks and offers his thanks. 

“And I just got a glimpse. He was bleeding real bad and- And they got on top him.” Jim wipes at his eyes with the back of his hand. “I thought that was it. I thought they finally got him. And I screamed. I dropped the high roller’s tray. I was so scared, Bones. 

He looks up at Leonard and all his tough guy facade is shattered. “I thought- that-” 

“Hush now.” Leonard pulls Jim into a rough hug. It starts rough. But Jim just melts and curls into Leonard’s warmth. He clutches at the rags of Leonard’s old scrubs and nuzzles into the curve of his shoulder. 

He cries.

Leonard wasn’t raised a slave the way Jim was. He hasn’t had to kill men to earn his keep the way Spock has. He’s just a country doctor. He’s not rough and strong like these men. But he knows how to heal. “That’s it, Jim.” He whispers, stroking Jim’s naked back, striped with fine scars, “That’s fine. You’re alright. I’m here.” He rocks Jim gently and watches Spock’s chest rise and fall with each shallow breath. 


End file.
